Caledor revisited

After a few games of actually playing Warhammer Fantasy (which is more than I can say of Warmachine back then), I’m starting to appreciate the virtue of a mixed arms army more and more. In Warmachine, I find myself tailoring a list to fit a specific game plan. In Warhammer, this usually leads to my defeat. The best list I’ve fielded so far has a mix of melee, ranged and heavy hitters, which is pretty much text book composition and may look boring on paper, but it’s super fun to play on the table.

That said, there’ll be a 2,400 points Warhammer tourney in Penang early next year and I intend to bring my Sons of Caledor list. As it is, it’s not only impossible to complete by then due to the complexity of the Dragon Prince models, it’ll also get eaten alive. So here’s my current list that I intend to bring:

General: Prince on Star Dragon, wearing heavy armour, Charmed Shield, Crown of Altrazar, wielding lance, Ironcurse Icon.
= 563 points.
Since Dragons are prone to get shot off by cannons in the first turn, I’ve tooled it for survivability and keeping it cheap. Admittedly, I’m only using the Prince as a means to get a dragon in my army. With S7, T7, and 7 wounds, the dragon can cause major damage by flanking any regiment. Hopefully the Terror that it brings will make things easier for me to route regiments and chasing them down.

Battle Standard Bearer: Noble on barded elven steed, wearing Dragon armour, shield, Ruby Ring of Khaine, wielding lance.
= 153 points.
He’ll be joining one of the Dragon Prince detachments. I want my heavy hitters to really tough it out psychologically wise so making him join their ranks sounds like a no brainer to me. The Ruby Ring will give them a slight edge in making their ward saves if needed.

Level 2 Dragon Mage, wearing Dragon armour, Enchanted shield
= 400 points.
He gets a Sun Dragon for free, so really, he’s only there to give me a S5, T5 dragon on the board. He makes it possible for me to field 2 dragons in one army, which is awesome. As a mage, he’s also more survivable than most because he has the option to wear the Dragon armour, which opens up the possibility to equip magical armour on him as well. In combat, he’s more survivable than the General by having a 2+ armour save as opposed to 3+ (which will drop to 4+ as it breaks).

Core:

Lothern Sea Guards x30, wearing shields, full command
= 390 points.
My “horde” for the army. An anvil unit that can shoot as well as having a massive 4 rank attack on the defense. With shields, they have a 5+ armour save which is handy when facing S4 crossbows and whatnot. Granted, a 6+ save is flaky but it’s better than having no save at all. Lined up in ranks of 10, all 30 of them can shoot in a massive hail of arrows, which is nice. Though they’ll only cause 2-5 wounds at best, but it goes a long way in thinning down other hordes. The bonus is that they can declare a Stand and Shoot reaction which will deter high damage but lowly armoured troops from wiping them off.

Ellyrian Reavers x5, wielding spears and bows, musician (2 units)
= 210 points.
Fast cavalry, perfect harrasser units as well as warmachine hunters. They also divert big blocks of infantry away from my heavy hitters which is really cool. Though they reform for free and all that, the musician is there for the +1 bonus while rallying after a feigned flight. The biggest plus about this unit is that they can march for 18″ and can still shoot. Using S3 bows, they might not do much but whittling down 1-2 per turn can be huge as it goes down to turn 5+.

The titular heroes of my army. Initially I had 20 of them but it cuts off my other options to deal with other threats, so no. 4 Dragon Princes had to be cut out so I’ll have a nice divided by 5 number to make it easier to composite my extra points and stuff later. These guys stat wise are as average as any other elf, which is a bit disappointing. BUT, they have 2 attacks and a 2+ armour save and 6+ ward save to boot. Oh and a 2+ save against flame attacks. Nice. The champion has 3. We are looking at a huge amount of S5 attacks on the charge and they still retain their Always Strikes First rule.

They are designed to be flank/rear chargers because taking a horde head on would be suicide. I don’t think I’ll be spacing them out too far from each other as I intend for them to hit a single big regiment from all sides, cause a route and chase it down. A broken regiment will waste a turn for not being able to charge, which is cool by me. I have a feeling that using them would be tough on both my opponents and myself, since it’s very easy to screw up while playing this way. But I’ll be damn to call my army the Sons of Caledor if I don’t have at least 15 of them.

Rare:

Sisters of Avelorn x10, champion
= 150 points.
My specialised missile unit. While the Sea Guards have 30 bows, they’re still S3, which can’t really cause a big enough threat. Especially against heavy cavalry units. They not only have WS/BS of 5, but they also carry these magical bows that deal S4 magical and flaming attacks. Against the forces of destruction, they also induce a -1 armour save as well. It would be swell if I have the extra points to plunk in the Handmaiden armed with the Reaver Bow with these girls, but as they are, they’re good enough. They also present themselves to be a juicy target, which hopefully will drive the opposing army away from my Dragon Princes. The biggest disadvantage of this unit, is that they don’t have a musician so they can’t swift reform to answer a looming flank threat. But I’ll think of a way to get around that when the time comes.

And that’s it! 2400 points, on the dot. If I need to play a 2500 game, I’ll just add either a couple of Great Eagles or a unit of 10 archers and that’ll be that. I’ll most likely go with the archers wince they’re cheaper, cash wise. My goal now is to complete this army before January starts because not only will the Penang tourney be held then, but the Warhammer Fantasy campaign will be commencing as well.

I didn’t tool up my Lords and Heroes to be as killy nor as impressive as they could’ve been, but I’m paying more attention to the troops as they will be the deciding factor whether I’ll win or not. 8th edition of Warhammer pays a lot of emphasis on the troops, rather than the Herohammer days of 7th ed, where a dude on a dragon will decimate a horde of small guys with no fear of being wounded in return. In 8th ed, a lowly goblin regiment can kill your general if you foolishly charge then head on since rolls of 6+ will definitely wound this time.

I’m still missing 2 boxes of Dragon Princes, 2 boxes of dragons and a box of Sisters of Avelorn to complete this army (assembled and painted as well). I just hope I can make it in time.